Doncaster Rovers notebook: Sky Sports meddling, Gavin Baldwin questions and Belles' gear shift

AGM tonight

It might not have garnered as much attention as the General Election, but July 4 is an important date for Rovers too.

Thursday night sees the Doncaster Rovers’ Supporters Club Main Branch hold their AGM. It's taking place at 7.30pm (doors open at 7pm) at the Belle Vue Bar inside the stadium and will see Grant McCann, Gavin Baldwin and Shaun Lockwood on the top table.

Fans in attendance will be able to put their questions to the trio. No tickets are required and parking is in Car Park Two (adjacent to the main entrance).

Sky fury

It's safe to say fans aren't happy at the meddling by Sky Sports. Only last week the fixtures were released, albeit with the caveat that kick-off changes were to be expected owing to the bumper new TV deal that comes into force next season.

Already, two of Rovers' games have been moved. The trip to Port Vale (bossed by Darren Moore) is still scheduled for Saturday, August 31 but now with an earlier kick-off time of 12.30pm. And there's been plenty of anger at the moving of the trip to Harrogate. Rovers were due to go to North Yorkshire on Saturday, September 14 but the game has now been moved two days earlier with the strange kick-off time of 8pm on a Thursday night. We can only expect to see more of these alterations as the season goes on.

Squad numbers

It says alot about modern football that the release of the squad numbers usually garners more attention than it ought to.

But Rovers' allocated digits for next season hardly registered, given their simplicity.

Everyone who's remained at the club from last term has kept their numbers, with the only real news of note being that Joe Sbarra has picked up the vacant number 10 shirt - although Billy Sharp alluded to that during his interview with the Free Press last week.

For those that are bothered about this sort of thing, the lowest remaining vacant number is 13 although you imagine no new arrival will be in a rush to pick that.

Belles' contracts

The Belles have big plans going forward, and have begun the process of handing out player contracts as they embark on what they describe as a "new era" for the club.

Skipper Jess Tugby-Andrew became the first to sign a new deal earlier this week with goalkeeper Imogen Maguire following suit.

Belles chief executive Chris Wood, speaking after the news on Tugby-Andrew broke, said: “It is no secret that this is the direction we are trying to move the club.

"We want to put everything in place to get this club promoted and back to where it should be, and this is one important building block in that process. We want Jess to have the security to know we are investing in her, and investing in the club."